Chia seeds ok?

[outlander]

As a side note... The US is experimenting with growing chia in AZ and KY primarily for the horse nutrition field. First harvest will be October of this year, with pre ordered deliveries in November. A 5 pound bucket is $45, free delivery from uschia.com

Personally, I find this pretty exciting!! I prefer to buy American when I can. I plan to order some for chicken feed and to see if I can plant and grow some myself.

 

[1cityslicker]

Thanks! How much are you mixing in? How old are your chickens? Are you mixing it in dry or gelled? Sorry for all the questions. I'm new to the chicken life.

I probably put in about a pound per thirty pounds and that's dried. I haven't thought about giving it to them gelled..just never really had the time to commit to doing it that way.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

As a side note... The US is experimenting with growing chia in AZ and KY primarily for the horse nutrition field. First harvest will be October of this year, with pre ordered deliveries in November. A 5 pound bucket is $45, free delivery from uschia.com

Personally, I find this pretty exciting!! I prefer to buy American when I can. I plan to order some for chicken feed and to see if I can plant and grow some myself.

Costco had a small bag of it for sale recently but I didn't buy it...I don't remember how much it cost.

 

[Mekare]

Thanks everyone. My chicks are 4.5 and 6 weeks old. Can they have chia yet?

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Thanks everyone. My chicks are 4.5 and 6 weeks old. Can they have chia yet?

The seeds that I saw in Costco looked small enough for chickens that age. Make sure you provide grit or that they are free ranging for sharp grit in the soil to grind whole grains and seeds in the gizzard.

 

[Mekare]

Thanks!

 

[Nicole01]

I pay about $50-60 bucks for 6lbs of chia seeds. I don't share those with the chickens!

They will get left over quinoa, that's about it. Quinoa is a little spendy too, but not like chia. I eat chia seeds daily myself.

 

[crashfields]

I fed my chicks chia seeds one time and my mom stopped by and said that chia seeds swell like rice does. I don't feed it to them anymore for the same reason people don't throw rice at weddings, the birds eat it and can die from it. They can't burp. Just my uneducated guess. Lol

 

[jay7deb]

Hi ya'll my girls are 4 wks and thought about using coffee grinder for chia seeds then add to chic starter. I already give them a pan of sand to play in & learn to do dust bathing. Thank you in advance

 

[outlander]

Hi ya'll my girls are 4 wks and thought about using coffee grinder for chia seeds then add to chic starter. I already give them a pan of sand to play in & learn to do dust bathing. Thank you in advance

Chia seeds are so small that you shouldn't need to grind them. The sand you're providing should be adequate for grit, too. My 5 day old chicks ate chia seeds with no problems